Whistleblower Edward Snowden might soon be living up to his frigid last name as Icelandic lawmakers have put legislation on the table that would make the NSA's most wanted man a citizen of the polar country.

Member of Iceland's parliament Ögmundur Jónasson first made the proposition this morning, the last day before the 63-member legislative body begins their summer leave.

Granting citizenship to Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities would circumvent the rule that he must be on Icelandic soil to apply for asylum there.

The same tactic helped get eccentric chess master Bobby Fischer to Iceland from Japan in 2005 to escape U.S. prosecution for breaking sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia, according to 21st Century Wire.

Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee, but the idea received minimal support. 'We wanted to do this earlier,' wrote Pirate Party politician Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson on his Facebook page.

'But citizenship is an extremely delicate issue when it's granted by parliament instead of granted through ordinary legal processes.'

Iceland's parliament, known as Althing, saw three Pirate Party members elected in 2013. NPR billed the party as an 'international online freedom movement.'

Jonasson argued to parliament on Thursday that Snowden 'is now being chased and has nowhere to go,' according to Icelandic media.

Snowden also has a friend in former Icelandic presidential candidate Asthor Magnusson, who is collecting signatures from Icelanders as part of a petition to make his a citizen.

The Pirate Party of Iceland (Icelandic: Píratar) is a political party in Iceland. The party was founded November 24, 2012 by MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, previously a member of The Movement, and several prominent internet activists, including Smári McCarthy.

Who is Birgitta Jónsdóttir?

According to Wikipedia:

Birgitta was an active volunteer for Wikileaks and had an important role in the making of the Collateral Murder video, including co-production.

She has advocated to make Iceland a haven for press freedom and is the chief sponsor of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative.

Birgitta is also a poet, writer, artist, editor, publisher, activist and has used the internet for these activities.

Her first poetry collection was published when she was 22 years old by Iceland’s biggest publisher, AB books, in 1989.

Birgitta organized “Art against war” where a number of Icelandic artists and poets came out to protest the war in Iraq. Birgitta set up the first Icelandic online art gallery in 1996 for the Apple Shop in Iceland.

Birgitta has participated in several international projects related to writing and activism including “Poets Against the War”, “Dialogue among Nations through Poetry”, and “Poets for Human Rights”. She also edited and published the two international books The World Healing Book and The Book of Hope which contains writings by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove, the Dalai Lama, Rabbi Michael Lerner, John Kinsella, and Sigur Rós. Birgitta is a founder of Beyond Borders Press and Radical Creations. Birgitta is a part of International Network of Parliamentarians for Tibet (INPaT)

Every country has at least one party that deserves the name, and in most all of them do. What we need is a party that could embrace the word "Pirate" in the ironic way European Pirate Parties have. (On copyright and patent issues Pirate Parties represent a stance we need in American politics: a combination of small-government and anti-corporate. cf. Luigi Zingales' distinction between pro-market and pro-business.)

13
posted on 07/05/2013 8:12:52 AM PDT
by The_Reader_David
(And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)

The Pirate Party stemmed from only one “issue” which is to DOWNLOAD ANY FILE off the internet via bittorrent. Ever heard of the Pirate Bay where you can download free movies, shows, programs, etc? Not even the MPAA can shut them down.

19
posted on 07/05/2013 8:32:11 AM PDT
by max americana
(fired liberals in our company after the election, & laughed while they cried (true story))

And rightfully so. The Motion Picture Association of AMERICA has no jurisdiction in SWEDEN, where TPB was originally located.

The problem with Intellectual Property, is that it was originally granted for a LIMITED period of time. But the big Movie and Recording Corps gradually had it extended to 99 years. . . to prevent properties from falling into the Public Domain.

Disney is the ringleader here: otherwise, Mickey Mouse would have gone Public Domain decades ago, and ANYONE could sell mickey-themed merchandise, instead of paying Disney a licensing fee to use their IP. . . .

“Barlow is a former chairman of the Sublette County Republican Party and served as western Wyoming campaign coordinator for Dick Cheney during his 1978 Congressional campaign.[7] “

“In 1986, Barlow joined The WELL online community, then known for a strong Deadhead presence. He served on the company’s board of directors for several years. In 1990, Barlow founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perry_Barlow

What a monumental Dead-headed crock of FAIL.

29
posted on 07/05/2013 9:41:13 AM PDT
by TArcher
("TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, governments are instituted among men" -- Does that still work?)

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